Say Hello to My Little Friend....

With the ill-gotten gains from a recent commission, I decided to try out a new tool that was recommended to me, the Toshiba Portege tablet PC.  Thanks to the magic of Ebay, I acquired a 1.8 GHz dual-core M400 with 1 GB of RAM for just under $300...not too shabby.

A very enthusiastic recommendation for this PC came from Mark Oakley, the artist of Thieves & Kings and StarDrop.  I've long been a fan of Mark's work, and was glad to have the opportunity to talk with him at a couple of events last year, at which points he showed me a little of his working method and introduced me to the Portege as one of his main drawing tools.
Up front, I was a little dubious as I've been using a Wacom Graphire and while it's a handy tool for painting, I haven't found it all that great as a sketching and drawing tool.  However, after seeing the Portege in action and feeling the responsiveness of the stylus (which, by the way, is also made by Wacom), I decided to give it a try.  Now, I'm glad I did.

A few notes about the build of the machine.  This thing feels solid, almost industrial.  While I'm not keen to test the theory, it almost feels like I could drop this thing from my height and it would survive the impact.  The hinge on which the screen pivots between laptop/tablet mode is nice and firm with no wiggle, and the transformation is nice and smooth, with the tablet locking into place when it's down.  The stylus slots neatly into the body of the machine when not in use, and there's some great customizable one-touch control buttons on the screen.  All in all, it's a beautifully compact and portable machine.  Mine has a few dings from wear, but it runs like a dream, much faster than any PC or laptop I've owned before.

The system I own runs a tablet version of Windows XP.  In time I may consider upgrading this to Windows 7, but for now, that's doing just fine for me.  Thanks to another suggestion from Mark, in addition to Photoshop, I'm also running Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro, which is turning out to be a handy tool for quick sketching and is built very well for the tablet PC.  Photoshop, of course, runs very well on here.  The alignment of pen tip and cursor is precise, and the motion of the pen across the surface is smooth, making drawing on the tablet a real pleasure.  Mark has recommended replacing the screen of the tablet with thin glass, but I don't think I'm ready to take that step yet...I'm going to enjoy using this thing a while before I hack it to that level.

Of course, it wasn't long before I discovered some of the limitations of Photoshop on a tablet.  While much of the interface is built to work very well with a stylus, there's a few keyboard driven functions that I just cannot seem to do without.  I don't mind using the stylus to switch tools; it actually seems to enhance the experience for me.  However, I was very much missing the "shift" function for drawing straight lines, the "Alt" function in brush mode for selecting color, and the "Tab" function for hiding toolboxes.
Mark came to the rescue again by recommending the Modlock script that adds a screen overlay that duplicates the functions of several of the main keys, and has greatly reduced the stress of working in tablet mode.  He also developed his own script in Autohotkey for an onscreen "Undo" function that is sadly lacking from PS outside the menus.  I keep both of those running when I'm working in Photoshop and they've quickly become indispensible.  To date, I've only been able to bring back the "Tab" key function through the use of the on-screen keyboard, which is still a bit laborious.  I may have to look at the Autohotkey scripting environment myself to see if I can create an alternative solution.

On a side note...the programmers behind Photoshop could really stand to take a look at the Gimp interface.  One function I find very useful there is that when you use the "Shift" function for a straight line, there's a dynamic straight line represented on-screen between your start point and your cursor that shows you exactly where your line's going.  It's a feature I'd love to see duplicated in Photoshop.

So, with everything in place, I've been working on commissions on the Portege for the last couple of weeks, and it's quickly becoming my main drawing tool.  Not only is it a fun little device to work with, but it also frees me from my studio computer/drawing table so that I can actually interact with other human beings while I'm working.  The processing power in this thing allows me to do image searches for reference while in Photoshop without bogging down the system to a crawl, and my graphics programs zip along faster than they did on my old studio machine (now repurposed as a Netflix device).
While there'll always be a tactile appeal to working with pen, brush and paper, I've got a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot more time working on my Portege.  I know it's an older machine and not top of the line; as with most things technological, I'm a couple of years behind the curve.  Still, it's got power in spades beyond my old Acer; certainly enough to change my working method for the foreseeable future.

If you're an artist who works on a table PC, I'd love to hear any recommendations for tools, software or working methods that work for you.  Leave me a comment or shoot me an email, and let's share some knowledge!

Psdgraphics.com - Good Photoshop Resource

I'm just working up a piece using a paper texture I downloaded from this site.  It looks like a good collection of resources for Photoshop, including textures, tutorials and more.  I'll definitely be bookmarking this for future reference.

Let it Rain

I was trying to create a rain effect similar to that in "Sin City" and came across this nice rain brush by Faeth-design over at Deviantart.  There's some other nice brushes available under their profile as well; take a look.

Flame Brushes

I hate painting flames.  Trying to get the look just right is always a pain for me.  That's why I like finding something like this set of flame brushes from DeviantArt user redheadstock.  This will save me a ton of time on the piece I'm currently trying to finish.

Credit Where Credit's Due

I use a lot of resources, both online and off, in any finished work.  It might be reference photos from an old book, inspiration taken from a particular artist's style, or custom brushes and textures taken from online sources (such as DeviantArt).  A lot of these resources are released with an attribution licence, meaning that there's no cost to use them as long as you give credit to the creator.  Unfortunately, there's not always room or opportunity to give credit to so many people in the finished work. 
So, I've decided to create a section for this blog called "Resources" that will be a link catcher to give credit to those people who have (perhaps unknowingly) contributed to the success of some of my work.  Checking the "resources" tag will lead you to a listing of sources, tools and inspiration that may benefit any other creative types in my readership.  I recommend looking up any of them and seeing what they have to offer.

First up is a thank you to Enchantedgal-Stock at DeviantArt, who's Rainbow Splatter Paint Texture is going to save me a bunch of time on a project I'm finishing off this evening.  This seems like it should be a simple thing to create on my own, but given a deadline crunch, this will be invaluable in saving time on work and cleanup.  Thanks, Enchantedgal.

Book Review: Bold Visions

I recently picked up Gary Tonge's "Bold Visions" on a whim while browsing the art section of a local bookstore. I generally tend to avoid the "how to" books on comics and fantasy art, other than a quick glance through the pages. This is mainly because I find that most of them teach very limited material, showing how to draw very specific characters in very specific poses, without really exploring the fundamentals of drawing or character design. Even rarer is it to find a good book on digital painting and illustration.
I hadn't scanned "Bold Visions" very far before I knew that this book was something different from the usual, and it practically demanded that I take it home and give it more attention. For the price ($21.00, less if you order it online), I was well rewarded with a book that is both inspirational and informative, and that I think would make a welcome addition to any aspiring artist's reference library.

Tonge's book stands out for three reasons:

1) the author is very good at explaining his process in as few words as possible, with only moderately technical language. His descriptions of his usage of layers, special effects and the basic tools of Photoshop are clear, and encourage experimentation, whereas some books on the subject scare off the reader with jargon. Beginning artists will find much of value in this book.

2) as obvious as this might seem, the book is full of pictures! Rather than relying on blocks of text and captioned images to communicate his methods, Tonge has used a simple yet brilliant technique of using well-labeled images to show the comparative effects of various tools. For example, when describing layer effects in Photoshop, he uses one large image broken down into smaller square areas, each area showing the result of applying the layer effect. The composite picture shows quite clearly the difference made in each case, and communicates the point much more clearly than could be done with traditional text and captions. This may seem obvious, but a quick glance at many art instruction books will show that it is not a technique in widespread use.

3) Tonge is a very good artist. Many of these books, I find, are done by artists who are mediocre, whose work does not really stand out. Take, for example, the many comic and manga instruction books authored by Chris Hart. While they're fine for raw beginners, or those who just want to draw action figures, the art itself is below the standard of even the better than average comic artists working in the market, and as such does not generally inspire the reader to want to take pen to paper. Tonge's work, as the title states, is indeed bold. It is well executed, polished and powerful. Tonge has a wonderful sense of color, and some of his digital paintings have the depth and detail of a John Berkey or a Syd Mead. Seeing this proficient work explained in such a simple way is great motivation for the reader to take mouse or stylus in hand and try some of the things he writes about. If nothing else, this is just an enjoyable book to look at, and makes a fine portfolio book for fantasy art collectors.

Aside from magazines like "Sketch" or "Draw", I've only added a few reference books to my library in recent years, great ones like Scott McCloud's "Making Comics" and "How to Make Webcomics" by Dave Kellett, Kris Straub, Brad Guigar and Scott Kurtz. "Bold Visions" will hold a welcome place among them, and I hope that more publishers will see the value in producing similar books by quality artists. This is the kind of stuff I really need in my collection.

For anyone who's curious about Tonge's work, you can see it for yourself at his website, VisionAfar. It's definitely worth a visit.